


Of Wolf and Comb

by Qem



Category: InuYasha - A Feudal Fairy Tale
Genre: April Showers 2012, April Showers Challenge, Backstory, F/M, Hair, Japanese Mythology & Folklore, community: iy_flashfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2006-01-02
Updated: 2006-01-02
Packaged: 2017-11-04 02:32:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,310
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/388717
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Qem/pseuds/Qem
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>So lets go on to tell a story about wolves, a comb and a certain sword.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Of Wolf and Comb

**Author's Note:**

> Title: Of Wolf, sword and comb  
> Author's Name: Qem_chibati  
> Written For: Numisma  
> Pairing: Yura/Kouga  
> Rating: PG-13, original character death. Vaguish mentioning of a show character death - as happened in show.  
> Spoiler Warnings: None really, unless you don't know who Kouga is.  
> Summary: Of where a sword came and went.  
> Authors Notes:  
> On whoosh and twirl, bottom of this page covers it. ^.~  
> http://www.swampfox.demon.co.uk/utlah/Articles/japwolf.html

As Yuriko journeyed away from her childhood home, she entertained herself by being overly dramatic.

Combs were a useful object. They definitely did give much aid in looking beautiful, helping to shape and frame, rich glossy black hair. But you did not give them as a gift! Yuriko was most upset with Sadatoki. Here she was being sent away to marry the old fat balding samurai-scholar, Hosokawa Yoriharu, being forced to wear her most stifling and restrictive clothing, which was all silk and layers upon layers, saying farewell to her family – possibly to never see them again.

And what was her good bye gift from her darling dearest responsible older brother? A comb. Sadatoki gave her a comb. A comb! A fine white ivory comb, delicate and pretty to be sure, but a comb! Didn't he know how that was such a terrible gift. A comb. With its kanji of, ku and shi; meaning suffering and death. Did he want her to suffer and die? It was not a good omen for her journey. There were youkai and mononoke on the way – it did not do to tempt fate, oh no, it did not do indeed.

He was the responsible oldest son! He was supposed to know the proper etiquette and the way things were done. He was not supposed to play hapless male!

Yuriko patted her hair in a self-conscious manner. Oh sure he had flattered her, by saying it was because of her beautiful hair, that was just like finest silk, that he had thought of such a gift. She did have the nicest hair in the family, a part from Sadatoki's own – it wasn't fair that a male should have such beautiful hair - but still. A comb!

Oh woe. Oh tragedy. To be a hapless female in a time of war; she was a puppet on a string, a gift to be bartered for unity and peace.

But a comb! Death and suffering!

* * *

Kouga was still not much more than a cub. He had recently attained enough power to take on a human-like form, and was currently proudly displaying this fact to his close cub mates Ginta and Hakkaku, by insisting on running in his bipedal form, rather than his quadruped.

It was much more difficult, involved greater concentration on his co-ordination. But he could be patient. He could manage.

Indeed, wolves were well known for their patience when it came to matters of hunting. Wolves were part of the land, part of the world; they deserved to be respected as such. 

Anyone who crossed the boundary would be hunted down. That was what pack did. Be they human or youkai no distance to great, no disguise too well made, no obstacle too great to stop the terrible vengeance of the pack.

This was a lesson they taught well to their cubs.

* * *

Tadanobu, was a dead demon running. It was only meant to be a joke, he hadn't meant to hurt anyone. Bit of laughter, you weren't meant to take him seriously, per say. But he had terrible, terrible bad luck and of course everything had to go from bad to worse.

To say the wolves were peeved at him was an understatement.

Who'd of thought that stumbling upon the leader in a, delicate, situation would of turned so tricky, so quickly.

No harm done, just a bit of an illusion and a whoosh, twinkle, twirl and grin – and things were appeased. 

That would have been fine had he done as he intended and just moved off, heading to the nearest human village for a night of mischief and fun.

If only he hadn't stopped to chat with that tanuki.

Having spotted his old friend, he had realised that tonight's festivities would have to be postponed, since the villagers would be on the look out for pranks – it was only funny if your victims weren't expecting it.

If only the topic hadn't gotten to the subject of wolves, in particular their current charismatic, zealous leader. Who had pushed the balance and started another war. If only he hadn't mentioned how he thought the leader was over compensating for a little something, in the invasion and expansion of territory, into Gokurakuchou territory. If only he hadn't hinted upon his authority to talk about the matter.

If only an incredibly inept, idiotic but loyal minion hadn't been behind the tree listening.

Now he had to use all of his wits, laying out double trails, backtracking, leaping from side to side, crossing lakes, rivers, even pretending to be a horse.

He had eluded them for quite some time, but they had picked the trail up once again and he was forced to move onwards, least they catch up and extract vengeance.

He could hope to fool them with the illusion of a dead body, but wolf demons were hard to fool – the leader especially seemed to have some annoying sixth sense that was difficult to trick.

As he heard the neat clip clopping of horses ahead, a quick plan came to his mind, he changed into a small bird and landed on the back of the carriage hitching a ride. He only needed to make it to the ocean and then he could negotiate to make his way west – wolves surely had their limits in how far they would follow him?

He looked back... Perhaps it would be safer in the carriage, least a wolf or an ally of theirs spot him in the distance. Better to risk it by hiding inside the carriage, rather than face them head on. Besides that he was tired and wished to rest. Tadanobu was more than confident that he could handle any human.

* * *

Yuriko was inside the carriage, the comb on her lap, still continuing her mental rant, while focusing her attention out the window. An innate sense interrupted her thoughts, warning her that something was in the carriage, causing her to turn around.

Tadanobu being the quick-witted kitsune that he was had already formed a plan. A young girl, noble family... bored, daydreaming, long journey, human.... This was too easy.

He had in the millisecond it took him to think of his plan, transformed into a golden yellow lord. Illusions were his speciality and turning his fox charm up to its very limits, he smiled winningly at the girl.

* * *

The thing that Yuriko noticed was not the crafty eyes, nor the whimsical smile, but the pure, lovely, long, silky golden hair. It was of a calibre she knew she could never ever achieve.

So very beautiful.

A startled cry rose to her lips when the golden lord punched raising a hand to her lips, shushing her in caressing tones.

“Hush dear lady, please.”

Yuriko could only stare in shock as the golden lord pressed his lips to hers and sent her thoughts spiralling trapped in an illusion of her mind's own making.

* * *

Tadanobu smirked. The girl would not be able to escape the grip of that illusion any time soon, he sincerely doubted that she had the capacity to use her will to usurp its hold. He artfully arranged her by the window, returned to his fox form and beneath her seat. Finally he sighed, a chance to rest.

* * *

Gallopy. The sound of a horse, startled and running.

Gallopy. The sound it made after it cleared the bush.

Gallopy. The sound of an oncoming collision.

* * *

It was only through skill and quick thinking that young Tancho, was able to avoid a collision and upsetting the carriage. As it was, the carriage had certainly received a rough bump, so Tancho was anxious to ward off Yuriko-hime-sama's disapproval.

Except... He would of expected a dramatic rush of words to have come pouring out already by now.

Uneasily Tancho made his way to the carriage to peer in. Only to observe the site of Yuriko fallen to the floor unconscious. To his comfort, he could see her chest rising up and down.

Tancho could only assume that Yuriko-hime-sama had hit her head and had been knocked unconscious.

Now he faced the dilemma, try to revive her now and face her wrath or rush to their destination and hope that their doctors could handle the matter.

People had been known to die from hits to the head.

Sighing, he pulled open the door and climbed in, wincing as he realised he had stepped upon a ornamental fan. It still appeared fine, but it was probably important to Yuriko – he set it up on the chair; as he then turned his attention to Yuriko and awkwardly tried to wake her up.

* * *

Kouga was very proud of the way that Okami was recognising his abilities and bestowing extra responsibility upon him, with treating him as second in command, recognising his potential leadership skills and giving him training for when it would be time for himself to step up.

Kouga watched with wide blue eyes, as Okami stated how it was better to know how your opponent thought and where they would head off on their own, rather than to just simply be able to follow their trail, though that was a useful skill as well.

Ginta and Hakkaku watched with wide eyes as Okami asked Kouga questions about what he sensed and offered interpretations. Their friend was moving up in the world.

And so this small group continued to run up and along the river.

* * *

Yuriko awoke to find a gentle breeze being blown in her face by a golden fox.

Tancho was relieved when Yuriko woke and started hastily making his explanations and apologies.

Though her pupils appeared normal and she appeared to be able to follow what he was saying, with nods and short answers – nods and short answers were not what he associated with the young mistress. 

He asked her to use the fan to keep herself cool and then went outside to direct the carriage towards the river. It was an usually warm fine spring day after all, perhaps she was suffering from the heat, in her heavy clothing.

* * *

When they got to the river, Tancho was surprised once more when Yuriko threw the fine fine fan into the water and watched it bob to the surface and float downstream.

A look at her face encouraged him to say nothing more on the matter.

But she seemed mostly normal at this point, so he pushed the horses to pick up the pace to make up for their delay.

* * *

The wolves howled as they came across a strong scent of a particular kitsune, leading away from the river and followed it with ease.

* * *

To be fair to Sadatoki, he had not meant to upset his sister and had been following the suggestion from his own wife, whom he had assumed would know best on how to handle the matter.

Feeling guilty about how he had upset her, he had gone to their father to gain permission to ride after Yuriko and make sure that she arrived safely.

When he had arrived at the Hosokawa residence only to find that the his sister had not yet arrived, he fled back along the road, looking desperately for tracks where a carriage appeared to have come off the road.

He was grateful for the fact that he had chosen to wear his armour to show Yuriko exactly how serious he was about the matter. It looked like there had been trouble.

* * *

Tancho was skilled at driving a carriage, and he was going as fast as he could to make up for time. He certainly wasn't fragile, he'd been deemed capable of fighting off five men in a fair fight.

So he was surprised when someone _on foot_ over took the carriage, and he did die with just one kick that knocked him from his perch and sent him flying off onto the road with a sickening crunch.

The horses whinnied their panic – they knew what was among them, and dashed off as quickly as they could once another kick separated them from the carriage.

* * *

As Sadatoki rose above the hill, he stared in shock as he could see what appeared the remains of the carriage his sister rode off in, surrounded by wolves.

He took off as quickly as he could, though it was still some distance away.

* * *

Yuriko's day had been pretty bad. So bad that when the carriage tumbled she had solely concentrated on trying to keep her seat and when a wolf's head popped through the window, she didn't even have the will to scream and could only grip the comb still in her hands, tightly, so tightly that it pierced through skin.

* * *

Kouga leered, his teeth gleaming cruelly, at the young girl trapped within the carriage, she smelt human, but was covered in...

“Care to explain why you stink of fox.”

Yuriko shook her head in confusion, scrambling for the door that was behind her, falling out and to the ground.

She was saved from having to answer though.

“The bastard isn't here.” Okami declared as he leaped off the roof off the carriage. His tone suggested that he was more disgusted with himself for falling for a trick, rather than angry that the fox wasn't here.

“Stupid humans were hiding him, then went off to mislay the scent trails.”

* * *

When Sadatoki saw his sister stumble from the carriage he let loose a mighty yell, hoping to distract the pack and buy some time.

* * *

“Sadatoki.” Yuriko couldn't help but gasp as she recognised the figure flying towards them on horseback.

She turned to flee from the wolves. Not towards Sadatoki as she would of preferred, for that would of meant going straight through the pack, but away into the woods. She should be able to climb a tree or something to get out of the way until Sadatoki could save her. Hopefully.

* * *

Okami the leader smiled nastily, as Yuriko fled as quickly as she could, stumbling over the long impractical hem.  
“Don't worry about the girl, she's just meat for the minions. Payment for aiding the fox. You deal with the samurai. I'm going after the fox, I'll be checking by the river catch up to me when your done.” There was no doubt in his voice, no room for failure. Okami was confident as always.

Kouga nodded his affirmative as he watched Okami whirl off in an excited dash – changing from marathon mode to sprint – the end of the hunt was near.

The minor minion wolves took off as well, Ginta and Hakkaku among them, not after the leader this time, but the girl. It had been a long hunt, but now was their chance to eat and recharge. Such an easy prey for a difficult hunt.

Kouga squared his shoulders and prepared to launch an attack.

* * *

Yuriko choked back a sob as she tripped again, over a tree root. She thudded heavily to the ground, dropping the comb that she had clutched from the beginning of her trip, as a wolf leapt over and ahead and another landed with a thud right beside her, with two more pulling up only a few feet away.

She wouldn't give up. She struggled to right herself, tears streaming down her face, but her long hair, thrown loose and wildly was stuck beneath a large paw – and wouldn't budge.

She struck out wildly, flinging her hand, knocking against the wolf's jaw. Her pitiful strength had pushed the beasts face aside – but ultimately it had, had no real effect other than flinging more of her hair – loosened from its ties now hanging heavily over her, weighing her down - around.

She could hear her brother cry out in pain in the background.

She was going to die.

But she determined, as a wild plan came into her mind, that she would not die alone.

Seeing how part of the hair had gone up over the wolf's throat, she grabbed the end and pulled with all her might around, choking the demonic beast.

The wolf's eyes bulged, his paws scrambled at the ground, at the girl, the other wolves paced around in confusion not understanding what was going on, reluctant to step in just yet. Yuriko was relentless.

Eventually the body began to sag, drool dripping from the monsters mouth, gasps for breath, trying to draw it in deeply.

Yuriko's hair was indeed like silk. Spider silk. A net drawn around tightly ensnaring its prey.

Yuriko felt the fight end. She had won the battle. But the war....

The last thing she felt was the wolf that had landed ahead, his jaw upon her throat tearing out her life, the force shoving her body backwards.

Her final wish was that she could of lived.

* * *

Kouga panted wildly. This human was no match for himself. He had been muttering constantly through the battle three syllables, yu, ri, ko.

Kouga almost felt guilty about the matter, the human had only been trying to defend his pack.

But they had crossed the wolf demons – that was the way the world worked, if you worked with a wolf demon's enemy you became an enemy as well. And then you died. That was how the world worked.

He picked up the warriors sword and slung it by his side. He decided to keep it as a reminder that he should and could fight to the death to protect his pack – after all, who would want to be shown up by a human?

* * *

Kouga paused in surprise as he came across the scene. The girl was dead, that was expected, but so was one of the wolves. Ginta and Hakkaku explained cringing how this came about and how they found it impossible to stop her.

Kouga poked the remains of her body cautiously with his foot, turning her over, to reveal the bloodstained comb she had been dragged onto of in the wolves quest to sate their hunger.

He picked that up as well. A comb was a stupid flimsy toy, but it would teach him that even the most stupid flimsy looking human was capable of dealing death.

* * *

Night came. Night went.

As the sun rose, so did a body, that headed off west, into the darkest part of the forest.

* * *

As it turns out Okami did find the fox, but some human had come before them and killed their hunt before they could.

Who else, other than a human would use a bow and arrow?

The frustration of having come so far only for someone else to steal the kill was solid in the air around the group.

Kouga swore that he'd do his best to make sure that his kills would never be let go to someone else.

* * *

Yura didn't remember a lot. But she did remember that a human had been important to her. And she liked his hair. So she cut off his head with his own sword and took it with her.

She also remembered a comb. And wolves. The comb was… Important.

So she headed off after it.

* * *

Yura wasn't particularly good at hunting, reasons being that she was more of a trap person. She preferred to have her prey come to her, rather than the other way around.

But eventually through long lines of hair she found what she was looking for. And when she found it she remembered more. Like a head coming up, through a carriage window cornering her.

“Having a pack only works if they are there to back you up. Kou-ga-chan.” Yura grinned nastily, stretching out the syllables for his name.

* * *

Kouga had been known to wander around by himself. Something was luring him out though Kouga was willing to bet that it hadn’t realised he had caught on from the beginning. Anything that was weak enough to insist on luring him out, he could handle.

The lessons of the month before after all only applied for the minions.

He was Kouga the legendary. He was going to be moving up in the world, a prince for his people.

* * *

Kouga ducked as a sharpened tree branch rocketed towards him.

His eyes narrowed. He couldn’t see anything, but his senses were going _trap, trap, trap!_

Tree branch!

Easily he leaped to the side, declaring “Your going to have to do better than that!”

The tree branch moved to the side too.

Kouga grunted as it pierced his side.

Laughter mocked his efforts.

A scantily clad woman, with lovely long legs appeared from the shadows. There was something vaguely familiar about her. One hand raised in the air, the fingers twitching some sort of invisible commands.

Kouga leapt towards her, she openly sneered at his efforts as the tree branch moved once more to protect her. He dodged, felt something – like a wisp of spider web interrupt his path, but it easily snapped.

Kouga tried to keep his own eyes on Yura’s face as much as possible. There was something in her face, though she was still laughing that not everything was going her way.

The way that she set up this trap, the way that she was keeping to the distance, suggested that she was physically vulnerable. So if he could just get past that stupid branch, attacking her directly… Well. Kouga grinned his demonstrating his trademark fangs.

He prepared his stance, waiting for her move. She was really too predictable.

His eyes widened as he sensed the attack come from behind. She had two of them!

No, three! As a third of the whittled to form a pointy end tree branches came out.

Kouga couldn’t allow himself to forget his target however. He could do this.

Instead of moving to avoid the one targeting his face, he began to dash forward, leaping up, putting his weight on it, he was surprised to find that it actually held up slightly before succumbing to his efforts.

He span and leapt towards the other and with a lightning kick, jump dashed off it heading with breakneck speed towards the mysterious woman.

Flying through the air, run, run, run, jump spinning kick, he slammed his feet straight into her stomach, pushing her backwards, falling to the ground, following up with a right handed punch into her face, to complete the task. He could feel bones crack under pressure.

Kouga confident his opponent was finished, got up and turned around. It felt… Bad hitting a girl like that, but he hadn’t had much choice when it came down to it.

“Gah!” Kouga jumped to the side, grateful for his senses that warned him of the incoming danger.

He turned around, only to see the woman, her short hair flopped over her face, lurching upwards, looking like a puppet on a set of strings.

“What the…”, rising his wrists to block the giant blunt stone that had been thrown his way. “Who are you?”

The head snapped up, the face already resetting itself. “Yura.”

The demonic female leapt forward, her own punch swinging forward this time. Her attack was weak compared to some of the hits his pack did in practice tussles, but still – it hurt.

Kouga focussed on blocking, his mind trying to come up with a way to defeat his opponent. Going far away left him open to attacks, but attacking up close didn’t appear to be doing much either, she appeared to have written those serious injuries off as nothing. So what options did that leave him, how could he defeat this opponent? 

Kouga was not the type to blindly attack with no strategy, he had a wolfs patience, was capable of running marathons for the hunt with a single mindedness, but he needed to know that his own attacks were having an effect, that he wasn’t wasting his energy as his opponent watched him struggle.

A particularly vicious upper cut to the stomach sent him gasping back into a tree.

Well that was interesting.

For some reason the attack she had done to _him_ had hurt her.

Why?

A flash of understanding.

Kouga pulled from the belt around his pelt, he held the red stained comb and stated with a grim smile. “This is important to you, isn't it?”

Yura only hissed – taking a step forward only to freeze as Kouga made as if to bend the comb in his hands. Though in this life she had never laid eyes on the comb, she clued in on its importance pretty quickly.

Kouga piecing blue eyes never left her face.

There was a note of kindness in his voice as he asked “What is it, that you want?” There was something about her, something that made him feel an edge of pity.

This honestly puzzled Yura. Her eyes narrowed. What did she want? What **did** she want? Already memories of a past life were fading, the comb.... **The** comb that the wolf adolescent held in his hands... That was her reality, her life.

What she wanted was pleasure. And hair. Pretty silky hair. Like the kind she could feel wrapped around her fingers. She wanted to live life and have fun. Death was fun, but did she want this one’s death? He had pretty thick black hair than shined ever so pretty though…

She looked up and smiled.

Kouga found himself surrounded by thick black hair, pulling and surrounding, rich in texture and sensation.

“I”, Yura purred, “want that comb…. And while I’m at it, I think I’ll have you too.” She said as she slid the sword and her lips settled on his own.

* * *

Many, many, many years later, when all that remained was a graveyard of hair, cloth and a sword. Wolves came. Wolves left.

And the place was laid to rest.

* * *

“Where did you get that sword from?” Kagome asked, wondering why he would carry a weapon he would never use.

”I just took it from some human I killed.” Kouga replied easily.


End file.
